A functionality called DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) has been developed for communication of media between communication devices in a limited local network environment, also referred to as a residential or office network, LAN (Local Area Network), private or home network. In this description, the term “local network” represents any such networks. The local devices that may occur in a local network environment include fixed and wireless telephones, stationary PC:s, portable laptops, media players, game units, servers and television boxes, the latter also called “STB” (Set Top Box).
The so-called UPnP (Universal Plug-and-Play) protocol is typically utilised by DLNA-enabled devices for communication of media content within the local network. DLNA will be further extended to also allow for media communication with entities outside the local network. However, most TV sets used today will not be upgraded for internal DLNA communication for some time, and it will take even longer before external DLNA communication is possible.
In recent years, it has become very popular for users in telecommunication networks to make personal media content, such as photos and home videos, available to other users by publishing the content on a central server which can basically be searched and accessed over the Internet by the other users. Some examples of such Internet based services for media sharing are “Flickr” for photos and “YouTube” for videos. Many network operators also provide similar services for their subscribers. The user thus uploads his/her personal media content to the central server where it is stored for others to search and retrieve. Various mechanisms are typically also employed for controlling access to the media in order to allow only certain users to download the personal media content from the central server.
However, since most users have their personal media originally stored in a home environment, it is necessary to register with a media sharing service and explicitly upload the content from a local home storage, e.g. a PC, over the Internet to a central media server. This operation may be perceived as cumbersome or unsafe, and consequently many users are reluctant to share their media by means of such Internet based media sharing services. Moreover, the uploaded content may become outdated and in that case the user will need to explicitly upload new content once again. If not, the content stored on the central server will remain outdated, which is generally an undesirable situation.
Another drawback associated with the above-described method of media sharing, is that many users are likewise reluctant to search and download personal media over the Internet and play it out on their equipment used for the downloading, which may be considered unsatisfactory, cumbersome or unsafe. For example, the receiving user may prefer to display visual media on a large TV screen or play music content on a hi-fi system, in order to enjoy far better quality than offered by the Internet-enabled device used for downloading, typically a PC or an Internet-enabled telephone. The user may thus not always be able or willing to transfer the media to such a preferred device.
It can also be said generally that using Internet services for media consumption is far from fully employed by users, particularly elderly people. Thus, films and videos are still watched mostly in front of the living room TV set which is however not used for downloading media over the Internet. The above drawbacks and difficulties with the current mechanisms for media sharing result in missed sharing of potentially interesting or desirable personal media content for the users, as well as missed business opportunities for network operators.